A virtual Sunday roots - Americana - bluegrass road trip.

This was sparked by a comment from a US friend about a band recently seen live (twice) and how good it was. Today I have listened on rotation to these three LPs whilst doing routine jobs around the house. I haven't had the good fortune to see any of these artists live, yet.

It prompted me to think about an artist whose début LP I happened across a couple months back and then never got around to mentioning.  Of the three that is the one that I shall start with and it is the only one that consists largely of traditional tunes and songs; they were both collected and arranged by the artist, Jake Xerxes Fussell. That is indeed his name from birth and splendid it most certainly is. Much of the music here is acoustic singer-with-guitar material but lap-steel and fiddle feature too. 

Released: 26 January 2015 (Paradise of Bachelors)

I could have chosen almost anything here. Not a single song showcases the diversity that is sampled from the original sources. In the end I chose 'Star Girl' as it displays more of the instruments on offer here than some other tracks.

The next that I shall mention is the one recommended to me this morning and therefore the seed from which this conceptual road trip grew. Originally hailing from a slew of places across the US the five members, none were known one to another before they found themselves in Portland, OR in 2014.  In a matter of months they became Crow and The Canyon. From that point on they toured solidly, mostly in the Pacific Northwest, writing what would become their first LP 'Leaving Soon'.

It was released 9 June 2015 (CD Baby).

To a great extent this is their own material and it covers, indeed fuses a wide variety of styles across the folk, country and bluegrass spectrum. As Crow and the Canyon had been recommended to me this was actually where I started this 'road trip' but in terms of story-telling it seems to fit best in the midst of the three. It is invidious to attempt to choose just one track to illustrate this, but I'm going to try anyway.

The final piece in this trilogy is The Lil Smokies from Montana. This is very much led by modern bluegrass.

It was released 28 June 2013 (CD Baby).

'Mending The Fence' live in Missoula, MT, 2013.

Veteran of the psychic wars? Maybe, but now the battle.

The US presidential race has, particularly given the choice of candidates and the global economic developments that have in recent weeks swirled around, made what was always going to be an interesting race far-and-away more fascinating than most. In fact it was already so interesting that a significant portion of the UK population, myself very much included, had already paid sufficient attention to actually discover in detail what the campaign issues are and even gone to the extent of trying to understand how the voting system is configured!

It has impinged on music too (so no change there) in so much as some bands, Foo Fighters being one that come to mind, have challenged the use of their songs in political advertising campaigns that do not equate with their own views. That is one for the courts to finally settle; but if all the dues have been paid by those contracted to those entitled to them, and no other binding contracts infringed, I can't see how such matters of 'political taste' can be invoked. It is, perhaps, intended more as a media-visible partisan statement, which is in itself interesting.
This particular case involves the use of music by the McCain campaign but of course he has his vehement supporters, in music as elsewhere, too and given that it was described in part as a meeting of 'Black Sabbath' and Blue Öyster Cult plus other heavy rock influences, when I was informed of the album Axis of Evil by Babylon Mystery Orchestra yesterday curiosity actually got the better of me!

The album, Axis Of Evil, probably isn't available in the UK, and while the politics doesn't appeal to me, I think that the music itself possibly does. Music as a political vehicle is something that, conceptually, I have no problem with at all and that is regardless of whether I actually like the music and/or the message.

I do still very much like Blue Öyster Cult however, as I've rediscovered over the last two evenings, and I even saw them live at the Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall on 28th September 1987.
I don't think however that I've listened to either Fire Of Unknown Origin (1981) or Extraterrestrial - Live (1982) for at least a decade, despite the fact that I have owned both on original vinyl for the last two decades. It just shows what being sent an e-mail can do!

If you want blood, you've got it (Babylon Mystery Orchestra also cite AC/DC amongst their influences) because the wonderful folks at CD Baby in Portland, OR have it ready and waiting. As of this evening they were offering it at $10.00, plus $5.00 for standard (postal) shipping to the UK, and that's about £8.80 (including postage) at the current exchange rate. (You can get it from amazon.com too but it will cost you more and anyway CD baby specialise in independent music and have an interesting corporate philosophy. That is not to say anything about the message you'll get when you receive an order confirmation...